“At That Moment All Was Right In The World”: An Army Analyst And Linguist During The Cold War And The Fall Of The Berlin Wall

Frank and Jean Wagner met while serving on active duty in Germany during the Cold War. Frank was a signals analyst (MOS 05K, 98K, 35S) and Jean was a Russian linguist (MOS 98G, 35M), both working the same shift at Field Station Augsburg. Workplace cooperation blossomed into romance, and the two were married in May 1984. Frank Wagner was born in 1960 and grew up on a 1000-acre farm in Creighton, Nebraska. His family grew corn, soybeans, and alfalfa, and raised cattle and sheep. Frank’s childhood duties included tending 100 chickens, collecting their eggs, feeding the cows, and bringing the sheep in. He grew up with three older brothers and an older sister. Jean Reisinger was born in 1962 and grew up in the woods of northern Minnesota. She recalls her curiosity and amazement at the natural world, encouraged by her parents on hikes through the wilderness. Jean’s father served as a Navy carrier pilot during the Korean War, flying dive bombers with the “Night Hecklers.” At one point, he flew a reconnaissance mission into China. Later, he flew planes into Hanoi for the French. After his service in the Navy, he worked as a foreman in iron mines, and was on the ground floor of automation as the mines began incorporating early computers. Jean grew up with a brother and a sister. Frank’s ancestors came to Nebraska in the 1860s as homesteaders. One rode with Kit Carson, served in the Union Army, and was awarded 640 acres of land. Jean’s grandpa immigrated from Austria Hungary. Both Frank and Jean enjoyed their high school experiences. Frank went to a very small high school and participated in football, track and boxing. Jean describes the great public education she received in the late 70s. After graduating, Frank was working in a factory, and, concerned about possible layoffs, he was weighing his options for college or military service. In 1980, lacking funds for college, he began looking at options in the Navy. An Army recruiter offered him any job he wanted, and desiring to avoid field duty, Frank opted for an MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) in the Army Security Agency (ASA) focusing on signals intelligence. (His dream became a reality, and over a 20-year career, he only spent three days in the field, all during Basic Training.) Jean wanted to attend nursing school, but family finances and expectations of having her help around the house led Jean to the recruiter’s office in 1981. When she was offered the opportunity to learn a language, she jumped at the chance to enlist as a Russian linguist. Both completed Basic Training at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. Frank was shocked by a rare December snowstorm, while Jean sweated it out in July. During her basic training cycle, she was in an all-female platoon, paired with three all-male platoons. She describes her natural curiosity, which was nurtured during childhood nature-walks, becoming a challenge, such as the times she pointed out new southern plants (like kudzu) and was rewarded with lots of push-ups for “talking too much” and being disruptive. She describes her overwhelming Basic Training memory as being “exhaustion.” After Basic Training, Frank reported to Corry Station in Pensacola, Florida, for signals training before being assigned to Augsburg. Frank really enjoyed serving on a Naval base, returning to Pensacola twice more during his career, stating, “It’s good to be an Army person on a Navy base. It is wonderful.” Frank then reported to Field Station Augsburg, an INSCOM (Intelligence and Security Command) assignment that reported directly back to the NSA (National Security Agency). The Field Station consisted of a massive room full of giant floor-to-ceiling computer racks and reel-to-reel tape recorders. Jean reported to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, for a year-long Russian course. After learning Russian, she was stationed in San Angelo, Texas, at Goodfellow Air Force Base to learn her job as a 98G Voice Interceptor / Linguist. Because Jean had done so well in language school and in the 98G course, she was on track to attend Transcriber School, advanced training for top-tier linguists, but a drug bust (marijuana) at Field Station Augsburg meant that that unit was desperately short of Russian linguists, and Jean was sent immediately to fill the vacancy. While Jean was upset by this change of plans, her new assignment offered life-changing opportunity. When Jean arrived at Field Station Augsburg, she found that the station was in operation 24 hours a day, and the analysts and linguists worked strict shifts (tricks) and lived on schedule-segregated barracks floors. One day, Frank needed a Russian linguist to listen to a Soviet transmission, and Jean answered the call. From that day forward, Jean became Frank’s linguist of choice. Frank and Jean describe some of the idiosyncrasies of working in such a specialized, high-stress environment during the height of the Cold War. First, when the highly educated and very specialized Soldiers arrived in Germany, they had to avoid getting picked up by the NCOs from the Repo-depo (Replacement Depot), whose job was to fill vacancies in conventional units. Many of the Repo-depo NCOs were unaware of the Top Secret Field Station Augsburg and Field Station Berlin postings (because they were INSCOM assignments, not EUCOM [European Command] assignments) and tried to “poach” incoming Military Intelligence Soldiers earmarked for one of the INSCOM posts. Second, at Field Station Augsburg, there were two units, the Military Intelligence group and a conventional field artillery unit. Tension existed between the two units, because the artillery Soldiers felt that the intelligence Soldiers were “getting over” and “lived like queens,” avoiding many of the standard Army duties and taskings. Frequently the two groups got into violent barfights in Augsburg and at the Enlisted Club. Sergeant Major McKenna came up with a brilliant solution by building a fully-functioning bar, the “Op-Stop,” in the basement of his barracks building. Since the Field Station Augsburg Soldiers operated around-the-clock, the bar was open 24 hours a day, with certain Soldiers from each shift responsible for its operation. It offered a local (downstairs) option for Soldiers to drink, dance, play pool, and listen to music, that was sound-proofed for the benefit of the Soldiers sleeping several floors above, and it prevented the MI Soldiers from getting into fights with the Field Artillery Soldiers. As a not-for-profit establishment, the beer and drinks only cost .50 cents. Third, Frank and Jean describe some of the hi-jinx that occurred during slow times on shift. Sometimes, the Army linguists threw paper airplanes “armed” with flaming Q-Tips at their Air Force counterparts. During their time at Field Station Augsburg, Frank and Jean were able to “experience” Operation Able Archer ’83 from the Soviet perspective. Able Archer was an annual NATO exercise and it was part of Autumn Forge ’83, which also included REFORGER ’83 (Return of Forces to Germany). The 1983 exercise took place during a period of extreme geopolitical tension that could have turned the Cold War hot. As part of the exercise, NATO began rehearsing highly realistic procedures for releasing nuclear weapons. Believing this was possibly the prelude to war, the Soviets mobilized their Third Shock Army across the Fulda Gap. Jean was monitoring Soviet transmissions and noticed a surge in communications. Jean’s Sergeant, Emil Dupont, listened to the transmissions for a second and ordered every operator to begin recording and copying traffic coming over all frequencies. Jean even had to assist an Air Force linguist who was falling behind while listening to Soviet pilots. For the next week, Field Station Augsburg operated under combat conditions, where the intelligence team could not leave their desks during their 8-hour shift (including meals or bathroom breaks). Able Archer ’83 was a wake-up call for both the Soviets and the Americans, who were more careful in the future about conducting “war games.” One thing Jean learned from listening to Soviet transmissions every day was how sad and horrible their lives were. She heard them complaining about their lack of freedom, poor housing, and overreliance on alcohol. After getting married in Minnesota in 1984 (honeymoon in Vienna), Jean left the Army in 1985 as an E-5 Sergeant because she did not want to be reassigned away from Frank after being offered a lucrative assignment in Northern Germany at a British Army site. After getting out of the Army, Jean took classes at the University of Maryland and earned a degree in paralegal studies. In 1985, the Wagners returned to Ft. Meade, Maryland, where Frank was assigned to NSA Headquarters. In 1989, the couple returned to Germany for an assignment at Field Station Berlin, where their daughter was born. While there, they experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9, 1989). When the Wall came down, Frank made a rare exception to their rule of not calling from work, telling Jean to turn on the TV (she found more interesting reporting on the East German channels). Frank describes the scene as East German border guards being overwhelmed by mobs of people trying to visit the West and finally giving up holding them back. The next morning, Frank and Jean went to Checkpoint Charlie, where the US MPs on duty were getting bruised from a constant wave of East Germans hugging and kissing them and giving them flowers. Even though there was concern about what the Soviets or East Germans might do, Frank and Jean describe that time as the “moment all was right in the world.” While stationed in Berlin, they were aware of the operations of the Soviet Military Liaison Mission (SMLM), knowing that their phones were bugged and that Soviet spies targeted American Soldiers who had money problems or were cheating on their spouses. The Soviet SMLM teams could use the American PX or Commissary and “OPSEC (Operational Security) was terrible.” After leaving Berlin in 1992, Frank was stationed in Bad Aibling in Southern Germany, where their son Jim was born. In 1995, the Wagners returned to Pensacola, Florida, where Frank was an instructor at Corry Station before being reassigned to NSA Headquarters in 1998. In 2000, Frank retired from the Army but remained at the NSA as a civilian until retiring from that job in May 2026. Reflecting on their time in the Army, Jean states that her service taught her independence, allowed her to travel, and was an adventure. Frank notes that the Army took a Nebraska farm boy and showed him the world. It opened up a career opportunity that lasted 46 years (20 in uniform and 26 out of uniform). Their daughter is a successful software engineer who works at the NSA, and their son, who commissioned through ROTC, is currently teaching history at West Point.